


Stolen Moments

by Kissa



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Bittersweet, Blowjobs, First Kiss, First Time, Immortal Alec Lightwood, Immortal Jace Wayland, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Parabatai, Parabatai Feels, Secret Relationship, mission, secret, the law is hard but it's the law
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:46:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26550844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kissa/pseuds/Kissa
Summary: Team Parabatai make an otherwise disfunctional thing work for them. And maybe, just maybe the future will be kind on them.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood/Jace Wayland
Comments: 22
Kudos: 45





	1. Love in a hopeless place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Polarnacht](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polarnacht/gifts), [Lir_Soracia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir_Soracia/gifts).



> Thank you two for being so supportive and motivating me to write on :)

In hindsight, it was the cursed bathtub, Alec thought.   
  
They had been sent on a three day mission which had taken two hours. Demon activity in a wealthy mundane neighbourhood had turned out to be a case of multiple possession. A family of five - dad, mom, teen son, teen daughter and toddler, all possessed by demons looking for a way into the mundane world, wanting to spread their demonic influence further and further among humans.    
  
Izzy had determined that the possession was too advanced and the five people’s cells were now demonic.    
  
Jace had stared at the electric blue-eyed toddler advancing on him with a cleaver. Tight spot. He couldn’t kill a baby, could he? But he also couldn’t catch it, the little shit was fast as hell and slippery like an eel.    
  
***   
  
While Jace pondered, Alec shot an arrow at the thing, making it vanish in a cloud of ash that dematerialized too.    
  
“Five.” Alec said, putting the bow back on his back.    
  
Jace had taken out the dad, the mom and had helped Alec corner and dispatch the eldest son too. This mission had just added to the long list of things he needed therapy for.   
  
“Well this was fucked up. Let’s go back and put our report in early.” Alec said, but a closer look at Jace let him know his overachiever fantasy would not become a reality that day. The report could wait - Jace looked in shock and Alec could pick up on his distress through their bond.    
  
“Hey. It’s okay. They won’t win. We’ll get them all.” He said, unsure of the truth of that statement, but wanting to comfort his parabatai.    
  
He walked over to Jace and wrapped him in his arms, carefully hugging him close. After all he'd been through so far, Jace was bound to be more vulnerable to the sights and situations of the ongoing war they fought.    
  
Alec’s heart broke for him and he wished he could provide the kind of comfort that would actually help. Because, as his parabatai, he didn’t know what did help.    
  
Their bodies, locked in the close embrace, triggered something in their bond and it opened on both ends, letting their emotions flow together and meld somewhere in the middle, between them.   
  
Alec got hit full force by Jace’s fear of eventually succumbing to the surrounding darkness. He felt Jace’s frantic attempts at figuring out whether he was in fact going insane or if he was being corrupted by the dark again.    
  
But beyond that, in a locked chamber of Jace’s heart, like an unplayed piano, sat a glowing orb that expanded when Alec curiously walked over to it and touched it. Soon, it engulfed him and it told him Jace’s deepest, most well-guarded secret.    
  
Alec came out of the slight trance the bond had drawn him into with a start. If what he’d witnessed was true, then… then…    
  
He’d been an idiot, but a redeemable one.    
  
“Jace. Did you mean to show me that?” He asked softly, tilting Jace’s chin up so he could look at him.    
  
Jace’s eyes were blurry with tears and there were wet streaks on his cheeks.    
  
“No… Yes… I mean… I was going to wait until I was less of a ruin to tell you. I was going to be worthy of you. I can’t ask you to break the law and throw your future away for this.” He gestured down at himself in disdain.    
  
“Jace… Jace, I love you. I love you no matter what you’re going through. These past few months have been hell for both of us. We’ve been terrible to each other. But if I learned anything, it’s that it’s always us, just us against the world.”   
  
Jace thought of Alec’s short relationship with Magnus.    
  
_ “Magnus loves me and I believe eventually we’d be happy together. But I can’t love him as much as he loves me, and I haven’t waited so long for a lukewarm romance.” _ Alec had confessed to his parabatai one night, as they stood on the roof of the Institute.    
  
The warlock had maintained a warm, but strictly business relationship with Alec after that, but he had started to openly dislike Jace, although Jace was not as present in Alec’s life back then, not even as his parabatai. The more Alec thought about it, the more he guessed the reason why.    
  
Now… there they were.    
  
“I love you too, Alec. You’re right, too, it’s always just us against the world. But… I love-love you. I did my best hiding it all my youth, but lately I saw that tomorrow is not guaranteed and… I wanted you to hear me say it at least once.”    
  
Alec felt himself melt around Jace at the admission.    
  
“I’ve been a coward and a fool.” He said, placing a soft kiss on Jace’s forehead, then on the tip of his nose, then finally on his lips. “I should have told you how I felt, not waited for you to catch a hint so that maybe we can talk about it.”    
  
“You are the best part of me, Alec. You were not the coward in this. I want to work at it. I want us to be good for each other. Even if… even if it’s certain I’ll never get to marry you in gold.”

“I think you must have figured it by now, whatever you say, my answer to you is yes.” Alec gave back, feeling heat intensifying and suffusing every corner of his body.    
  
“If I said… that I want you? What would you do?” Jace asked, daring to look right into Alec’s eyes.    
  
“I’d already be on my knees and ask how you would have me.” Alec said, eyes burning with want. This moment had taken ten years to happen and he was done waiting. Jace had a point. Tomorrow was not guaranteed. “Let’s not pretend anymore. This has always been us. You command, I follow.”   
  
“I don’t want you on your knees. Not now, not here - not yet.” Jace said. “Take off your clothes and go into the master bathroom. Fill the tub and get in. You choose the fragrance. I’ll be right with you.”    
  
***

He knew Alec would do exactly as he instructed, and Jace went to the teens’ bathroom, looking for what he needed. When he did not find it there, he sighed and tried his luck in the parents’ bedroom. Unsurprisingly, the mom did keep lube in her nightstand. And the good kind too.    
  
When he joined Alec in the bathroom, he lingered for a few moments in the doorway, just to take in the view before him. Alec had lit some candles he had found in the cabinets and he had used a patchouli and sandalwood bath foam product. His wet hair clung to his forehead and he sat among the bubbles, relaxed and with his head back in a way that made his deflect rune look particularly enticing.    
  
Jace undressed unselfconsciously, enjoying Alec’s eyes on him. Alec was used to looking away or over Jace somewhere in the distance when they had to, for whatever reasons, undress together. But now he allowed himself to look, with the elation of someone opening a particularly large and desired birthday gift.    
  
When Jace stood naked on the soft carpet in front of the tub, Alec unconsciously licked his lips and looked up at Jace slowly.    
  
“You look like a god.” He said in a reverent whisper.    
  
“As do you, my moon.” Jace said, smiling when he saw the effect the endearment had on Alec, whose breath hitched and who shivered in delight. 

If he was the moon, then Jace was the sun - bright, scorching or life-giving, its burn reined in by the moon and the night. By him. 

Jace stepped into the water, sitting behind Alec, framing him with his arms and legs. He immediately began tracing every inch of his parabatai’s long, hard body with his fingers, watching the tension drain out of Alec with every caress.   
  
Jace’s lips traveled over the edge of Alec’s ear, down to his neck, closing over the pulse point and sucking lightly. He felt his cock start to fill at the small but needy sounds Alec was making under his attentions.    


“That’s it, let go… for now, it’s just the two of us here and no one’s keeping tabs.” Jace said, switching over to suck and nibble on Alec’s deflect rune.    
  
“I don’t want to be your toy, Jace.” Alec said, leaning forward, away from Jace’s touch, but only so he could speak without getting distracted. “I don’t want to be someone you fuck for a week and then move on from. I want you, the Angel knows I’ve wanted you even before I knew what it meant. And I’ve loved you for even longer. So, don’t play with me.”    
  
“Is that what you think this is?” Jace asked, trying to hide the hurt in his voice. “Look, I may not be good at big words and romantic gestures, but I choose you, Alec. Over and over, it’s you. I will risk my name, my life, my job for the chance to be with you. And if I waited this long it’s because I see how good you are, how worthy of the best things this life has to offer, and I don’t want to selfishly rob you of happiness just because of what I want. Surely you won’t be happy with stolen moments and running off to mundane places to be together. Our family, our society, the Clave won’t let me hold your hand and call you mine, or marry you in gold one day.”    


Alec turned in the tub, a bit of water splashing out over the edges, just so he could look Jace in the eyes.   
  
“I don’t care about any of that outside stuff. If I had known I could have you the way I need you; if I had known  _ parabatai _ is not the only thing we can be to each other, I would have said something sooner. It’s my fault we are here, now, like this. I should have said something when it was time.”    
  
“Alec, not everything is your fault. I was a dick. My head was full of shit. And I thought that I had to prove to Maryse and Robert that I was not a disappointment. I took you for granted and I treated you badly, over and over. But never doubt that I love you. You’re the only person I ever felt so deeply for and the only person I wanted.”    


“Enough with the blame passing. We’re here now. And I don’t care if I have to hide from the world all my life, if it means I can have you.” Alec said, leaning in for a kiss.    
  
It was slow and deliberate, emotions and intensity flowing between them, the parabatai bond opening and humming between them.    
  
“Do you even know how gorgeous you are, Alec? How long I’ve been watching you? Craving you, ever since you filled out and became a man, so beautiful and elegant, like a panther.” Jace whispered, letting his hands roam down Alec’s front until they reached his cock, which jutted proudly from between his lean, muscular thighs.    
  
Alec blushed to the tips of his ears, looking away for a few moments, his breath catching in his throat when Jace’s hand wrapped around him.   
  
“Angel… yes,” was all he managed at the long-awaited first touch. “Please, more.”    


The moment he heard Alec ask so humbly for his touch, Jace knew he was ruined for anyone else. Alec may have felt like he was made to be Jace’s, but Jace doubted the dark haired boy realised how much power that bestowed on him. There was nothing else but Alec in Jace’s world when he begged him and looked up at him with those eyes, lips parted, tongue sneaking out to wet them in an unconscious gesture.   
  
Alec let Jace bathe him thoroughly, like in a ritual.    
  
Jace took his time and left no square inch of skin untouched. He wanted Alec to feel what it was like to willingly put control aside, at least for a while and enjoy a lover’s touch without the weight of angels and demons on his shoulders. Also, this was another way of making Alec his.   
  
They had to eventually leave the tub after getting each other off and ruining the bath, having to shower to get clean again. 


	2. Senseless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Jace are making the most of the mini-getaway their latest mission made possible for them.   
> This chapter brought to you by the song "I Like Him" by Princess Nokia and "Confidence " by Colby O'Donis. Nothing like finding the right songs to power a smut writing session. ;) <3

Alec stayed behind to dry off and when he joined Jace in the couple’s bedroom, he was welcomed by a sea of lit candles and fresh sheets on the bed.    
  
Even though it was all for him and it showed him just how much Jace wanted him, wanted to give them meaning and a dreamlike first time together, Alec still felt self-conscious. He was not as elegant or as pretty to look at as Jace. He was awkward and grumpy and always out of place. Sure, he was usually in just the right spot to guard Jace’s six or neutralise an ambush, but anyone could be a weapon. He still feared that Jace only wanted him because they were close in other ways and he was convenient and would never leave.    
  
But a bigger part of him liked that he was so dependent on Jace. It comforted a place within him that unapologetically demanded what it wanted and spoiled his mood for not giving it what it wanted and soon.    
  
Jace saw him standing there, in the dad’s toweling robe. He opened his mouth, as though to say something, but thought better of it and walked over to Alec in all his exquisitely naked glory.    
  
Alec felt his airways constrict and his heart stop. Jace was completely naked, the way he had left the tub. His muscular and lean body, covered in pale golden skin and dark runes, was a sight for the angels to sing about. Alec couldn’t help but look at Jace’s cock and swallow hard. Everything about his parabatai was so elegant and beautiful and Alec had never felt as gay as he did in that moment.    
  
Jace stood close to him and unknotted the belt of the towel, slipping his hands under the collar and sliding it off with premeditated slowness, parting his lips and looking up at Alec, unbridled desire clear on his features.    
  
Alec felt dizzy and didn’t mind when the garment fell to the floor, leaving him naked and exposed to Jace’s heated look. He felt ensnared and finally, his heartbeat resumed, picking up speed.    
  
Jace took his hand and led him to the bed, guiding him to settle in the middle, climbing up next to him and straddling him.    
  
The sensation of their naked skins touching, hot and alive, their cocks rubbing slowly against each other, made them both moan. Jace leaned down to kiss Alec, this time the kiss dirty and possessive, his tongue busting in and claiming Alec in a way that was all Jace and stole the last of Alec’s control. He squirmed under Jace, needing so much more and too far gone to think of asking. His hands knew where they belonged though, one burying itself in Jace’s golden strands, while the other slid down Jace’s back, resting on his hip and caressing, feeling, taking in. He didn’t dare go lower, figuring there would be a time for that, later.    
  
He could barely hold on to his senses with Jace on top of him, effectively taking his mouth and biting at his lips, pulling and nipping, moving down his neck and sucking - biting - sucking what Alec knew would be dark purple marks on him. Jace knew that too, and judging by his now fully engorged cock dripping a clear trail on Alec’s thigh, he got off on marking Alec this way.    
  
Alec writhed and worried for his sanity when Jace wrapped a hand around his cock and started stroking him, his grip hard and his thumb sliding over the tip of Alec’s cock, spreading the precome gathering there and coaxing more out, while his teeth and lips left a deep mark on the underside of Alec’s left pec. He heard himself mewl and beg, pleasure coursing through him at a scary intensity. If he was this gone now, would he even last enough for Jace to be inside him?!

He  _ screamed  _ his parabatai’s name when Jace’s lips wrapped around the head of his cock and his tongue traced its contour before dipping into his slit, gathering the precome forming there before Jace’s lips clamped down tightly around the tip and  _ sucked _ . 

Alec saw stars behind his tightly shut eyelids. 

“Angel… please, Jace, please... “ he begged, not knowing where to put his hands and wanting nothing but to get more of that ecstasy Jace was causing him. He pictured himself pushing Jace back onto the bed, reversing their positions, and fucking Jace’s throat until he came, but the violence of that fantasy scared Alec and he opened his eyes just to make sure Jace was alright. 

He still didn’t know how he was supposed to last, because now Jace was really, actually sucking his cock, one hand busy around his balls and the other resting on Alec’s lower abs, holding him in place.    
  
The sight of it was too much for Alec to bear. Jace’s hair caressing his lower belly, Jace’s lips around his cock, swallowing him down now, making him tremble and lose control fast - and then Jace looked up at him with so much adoration and care in his mismatched eyes.    
  
Alec came with a sob, despite his best intentions to last. But maybe, he thought, he’d be forgiven seeing this was his first time.    
  
Jace first made to pull off of Alec as his parabatai came, but then he changed his mind and stayed right where he was, only pulling back the slightest so he could swallow and lick Alec clean afterwards. The power trip it gave him to see Alec lie there bonelessly because of him was unlike anything he’d ever felt.    
  
Alec was so beautiful and pure beneath him - regardless of what they’d just done. Jace would never think otherwise and he moved off of Alec to lie next to him for a bit, catching his breath. Having Alec’s cock in his mouth had felt so good and satisfying, it made him leak and throb even more and Jace was a bit light-headed. Many things he thought were not for him were, in fact, for him when it came to Alec. 

For the time being, Alec’s lazy contentment seeped over to Jace through the bond and Jace could snuggle up to Alec’s side, catching his breath. He was still hard, but the edge was off and he was soaking in the effects from Alec’s side. Soon though, Alec’s need hit him like a wall of scorching heat through the bond as well and Jace smiled, reaching for the tube of fancy lube he had found among the mother’s things.    


Alec watched him, still feeling in a liquid state.    
  
“I want you so much.” Jace said, stroking his own cock lazily a few times and giving it a squeeze before moving to kneel between Alec’s legs, which parted for him easily.    
  
Alec was past the point of being self-conscious. Jace loved him, he really did, and it was real. He was tired of arguing with his own reality and denying himself the happiness of the current moment. He relaxed and breathed deeply, letting his body unwind and give in to Jace.    
  
The feeling of connection never faltered, only intensified with every moment that passed between them. Alec vaguely felt like it was odd and somewhat embarrassing to have Jace’s fingers up his butt, however what they were doing there felt too good to let him care about what it looked like from the outside. Jace was looking down at the spot where his fingers disappeared inside Alec, lower lip between his teeth, concentration written all across his features.    
  
“You’ll tell me if I’m hurting you, won’t you?” Jace asked, adding more lube to his fingers.    
  
Alec nodded, then cleared his throat to say “yes”. He was past the point of talking, because Jace’s touch had just shifted from awkward to very pleasant as Jace crooked his fingers on the way out and grazed a spot that made pleasure explode in the pit of Alec’s belly and shoot up his spine.   
  
“Do that again, Jace, fuck that felt good.” He demanded, spreading his legs wider, trying to fuck himself on Jace’s fingers. “More… Angel, that felt so g-hhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnng.”   
  
Jace was trying his hardest to go slowly, even though there was nothing he wanted more than to finally sheathe himself in Alec. He could only hope their parabatai bond would not flare up to something unbearable that would burn them both out of existence or turn them into true Nephilim, like the legends said. But, even though there was that fear, he still planned to make Alec his and give him the insanely hot first time he deserved.    
  
When Jace added a third finger and kept stretching him, Alec felt himself blush and pleaded with Jace to go faster. He figured it was enough preparation, and Jace did not need to fit his whole fist in him for them to have sex.   
  
“Hurry, Jace. I’m ready. Please?” Alec begged, his shyness not allowing him to be as demanding as he wanted.    
  
“Patience, my moon. It’s a very small hole.” Jace said. “I’d hate myself forever if I hurt you.”    
  
“I’m a Shadowhunter, for fuck’s sake. Pain is how I know I’m alive.” Alec gave back, suddenly upset at Jace coddling him.   
  
But it wasn’t about that, was it?    
  
Jace shook his head.    
  
“Not when it comes to this, parabatai. Come down and relax. I’m calling the shots now.”   
  
It was easy to bring Alec down into a state of compliance, because Jace had been aware of the older boy’s need of being seen and supported from the very moment they had met. Maryse and Robert had never thought of their son’s need to be valued for all that he was, so everything Alec did had a dark underside of him desperately and silently asking “what about me, don’t forget about me” even as he didn’t have the confidence to demand it directly. Once Jace reassured him, it was smooth sailing.   
  
They both felt it, the moment it was safe to carry on. Alec let himself trust that Jace knew what he was doing, and the feeling of relaxing into the moment and letting go coursed through him, making everything softer and easier.    
  
Jace had to close his eyes briefly. There was so much he wanted to do, but some of it would have to wait for later times.    
  
For the time being, he reached down between them to rub over the parabatai rune on Alec, watching his parabatai arch and writhe under him and feeling the reflected pleasure reach him through the bond. If he thought more about how precious and divine this thing they shared was, he would probably start crying, so he distracted himself by claiming Alec’s lips in a scorching kiss, only taking his focus away enough to replace his fingers inside Alec with his cock.   
  
They both cursed at the same time when Jace’s cock slipped past the entrance and into the tight and hot grip of Alec’s body. Jace stopped for a bit, giving himself and Alec time to adjust before he bottomed out.    
  
Tears sprang to Alec’s eyes and he brought his legs and arms up around Jace, pulling him down for an almost desperate kiss.    
  
“Alec? Does it hurt?” Jace asked, worried by the massive reaction.    
  
“No,” Alec gave back. “It feels too good. It’s new and I need to get used to it, but… it feels so right. Like something clicking into place.”    
  
Jace sighed in relief and rested his forehead on Alec’s, allowing himself to move, slowly for now.    
  
“I love you, Alec.” He whispered, propping himself up on his arms. “You feel heavenly to me.”    
  
Alec wanted to reply, but Jace changed the angle at which they were joined right then, and his next thrust erased Alec’s every single thought. He felt himself melt into Jace, unable to tell where he ended and his parabatai began, the feeling supremely reassuring instead of alarming as he would have expected.    
  
For a while, silence fell over them, the only sounds in the room being those of skin gliding on skin and their increasingly laboured breaths.    
  
Normally, Jace would have drawn things out as much as possible, wanting to prolong what little closeness and connection he could gain from sex with someone else, but with Alec that was not a concern. He wanted to watch Alec fall apart beneath him,  _ because of _ him. He wanted to hear Alec scream his name. 

He picked up the force and speed of his thrusts, pushing himself up on his knees, fingers digging into Alec’s flexing thigh muscles as he angled their hips just right. By now Alec was hard again, his cock bouncing against his lower belly and smearing clear precome into the fuzz there.   
  
Jace thought of taking Alec’s cock in his hand and helping things along, but his stubborn, competitive side reared its head and he told himself Alec would come on his cock or not at all.    
  
Judging by the sounds his every thrust coaxed from his parabatai, Alec was close and his last bit of control was slipping. His legs were shaking, his hands were grabbing fistfuls of the sheets beneath and his head was pushing back into the pillows as he arched his back, trying to get Jace deeper. His walls were squeezing down on Jace’s cock, the orgasm so close he could sense it. He dreaded the inevitable peak and fall even as he invited it to wash over him. 

“Jace…I’m c-” Alec began, a particularly hard thrust making his mind go blank. “Close.” he managed to push out over a breath before he exploded, arching off the bed and spilling on his abs and chest.    
  
Jace felt Alec’s orgasm as it happened, through the bond and through the rhythmic squeezes of Alec’s walls around his cock. Watching the look of sheer abandon and bliss on his parabatai’s face pushed him over the edge and he emptied himself inside Alec, shaking with exertion and with the sudden release. He let himself lean over Alec, trying to pull out without causing Alec any discomfort and swallowing Alec’s surprised yelp at Jace slipping out of him.    
  
For long minutes, they lay together, sticky and warm, until the sweat making their bodies sparkle began to cool.    
  
Jace groaned and rolled out of bed, going to bring a warm, wet towel to clean them both for now, before they could be arsed to leave the bed and head under the shower. For now, he did not mind snuggling with Alec and letting their scents mingle on their skins.    
  
“That was… wow. We’re going to need to do that a lot from now on.” Alec said, pulling Jace closer and tilting his chin up so he could kiss him. “Was it anything like fucking a girl?”    
  
Jace looked at him like he was out of his mind.    
  
“It was not like fucking anyone. Alec, I gave you the part of my soul that remained unclaimed. Being with you doesn’t compare with anything else in this life.” 

“Was this why you were so sad earlier when you said we can’t do public stuff?” Alec asked gently. When Jace nodded, he continued: “I don’t care about getting married. It would have been nice as an idea, but if it means I can’t marry you, then fuck it. I’ll be yours until I die.”   
  
Jace smiled at that and placed a soft kiss on Alec’s collarbone.    
  
“And I will be yours too.”    
  
After a few more minutes spent cuddling in silence, Alec spoke again.    
  
“Thank you. Thank you for making this so special and good for me. Did you like it?”    
  
“Yes, I mostly liked watching you and watching sensations play out on your face. And feeling pleasure from your end through the parabatai bond.”  
  
“How does this work?” Alec asked. “I can imagine the roles are clear cut between a man and a woman but…”    
  
“We talk it out. I am usually the one on the receiving end, and it would be nice if I could still have that some of the time.”   
  
“You mean, you want me to fuck you too?” Alec asked, his hands busying themselves stroking Jace’s back as one would with a long and lazy cat.    
  
Jace first nodded against Alec’s chest, then raised his head to look him in the eye and say yes.    
  
“It would be my genuine pleasure to take you apart bit by bit. Show you all the fantasies that got me through my teens. We still have two days where no one will care where we are.”   
  



	3. Out of history but never out of time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to see what the series of stolen moments morphs into and what it means for Jace and Alec.  
> Some of the chapter is Magnus' perspective.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise to those looking for a wrap-up smut chapter. Every time I sat down to attempt smut, the boys said no.  
> I am still very pleased with this chapter and I hope you are too, once you read.

Jace was more used to moving through the mundane world and interacting with mundanes with no glamour on. Which was why he went to sort food out for them. He got them two kinds of takeout, Chinese and Greek, and he stopped by a bakery to get some croissants for the morning.

When he returned, Alec had helpfully done the laundry and changed the bed. Before they sat down to eat, however, he challenged Jace to a sparring session, which lasted longer than usual because now they did not have anyone watching them train in the Institute gym. Now they could go all out, hit harder, try more vicious kicks and punches, yell and groan unrestrainedly. Soon they put their seraph blades aside and got into a grappling round, neither wanting to capitulate.  
  
They were locked together on the grass behind the house, in front of the garden, legs and arms entwined, each subduing the other as soon as there was some give.  
  
“We have got to find more dignified forms of foreplay,” Jace huffed, leaning close to take in Alec’s clean scent. He had not put any deodorant or cologne on when they had started and now, after the prolonged and intense exertion, his own fragrance wafted off of him in waves that distracted Jace. It was a mossy, dewy scent, natural but not heavy or unpleasant like the way human men smelled when they sweated. But it was a very enticing and arousing scent, as Jace could soon tell when his body responded to it. He had never actually sniffed Alec, or maybe he hadn’t been able to pick the scent up like he could now.  
  
“Sure picked a great time to be pedantic.” Alec gave back, pushing Jace face down in the grass, one knee between his shoulder blades. He pushed his hunger and his longing over to Jace through the bond, exposing himself and his truth like he never had before this unexpected time they had been gifted.  
  
Jace swallowed a keening sound which held both his and Alec’s desire. While living in these feelings was known to Alec, for Jace it was new and it was carving its place in his soul, not at the pace of years, but as a surge.  
  
Alec heard what made it past Jace’s lips and felt the vibration beneath him.  
  
“We are not meant to be at odds, you and I.” He said. “I’m here for you. I’ll hold you and help you through anything - even this. Especially this.”  
  
He got up and helped Jace along too, wrapping his arms around him, hands cradling the back of his head.  
  
“It’s alright.” He said, caressing his parabatai’s back with slow, soothing touches.  
  
“I know, I just… It’s a lot.” Jace whispered. “Coming in all at once.”  
  
Alec moved a hand to his neck, thumb stroking over the pulse, looking at Jace with nothing but adoration in his eyes.  
“I know.” He said, leaning in and kissing Jace.  
  
It felt like a habit they’d had for ages. 

***  
  
_Dickmatised._  
  
That was the word, Jace knew it from the mundane girls he used to hang out with and he had used to laugh about it.  
  
Surely, rationally, objectively, no one could have that power over someone else. It was just a matter of infatuation. And he had dismissed it as nothing more than a joke.  
  
They were back at the Institute and Jace’s mind was back in that suburb.  
  
To the self-assured and gentle way Alec had treated him. How it hadn’t been fucking, or sex, which suggested something serial and ordinary. Sex was something mundanes had, while doing taxes in their minds or thinking of the kids’ appointments for the next day.  
  
He hadn’t expected to love it so much. He’d imagined it would be more difficult, more embarrassing, and leave him feeling vulnerable and accessible.  
  
But Alec was his parabatai and no matter how they connected, their touch sparked cosmic flames. And where he’d felt open and exposed, Alec had come to fill that space. It hadn’t been the bond, and Jace had cried at realising - Alec’s love for him was an arcane magic in itself.  
  
He had problems concentrating on the job. Sure, he could still kill demons with his eyes closed, but a part of him was always back there.  
  
Discovering Alec as a lover was a humbling experience.  
  
“My mind’s been places my dick has not.” Alec had explained, and that had been all he’d had to say about the topic. He’d then shown Jace what he meant.  
  
Jace shifted in his seat at the conference table. He heard Maryse talking, but he couldn’t understand a single word she was saying. He could still, very vividly, feel Alec inside him. He remembered feeling so wired and buzzing all over with arousal, feeling full and complete and taken care of, held and protected. He felt the ghost press of lips on the nape of his neck, fingers in his hips, fingers inside him, opening him up. Lips on his chest, tracing the lines of muscle and tightening around his nipples, teasing them to hard peaks. He had come too soon, Alec hadn’t even entered him. He’d been ready to carry on in minutes - and that was without the stamina rune. 

“Jace, are you even listening?” Izzy asked a second time. “I said, are you going to be available later, in the gym?”  
  
“Uh, no, I’m taking the afternoon off.” Jace said, getting up and hightailing it from the conference room. With a bit of luck, no one would come after him, too absorbed in their own dealings.  
  
He’d had to get out of there before a moan or some other incriminating sound left him.  
  
He had to do something so he could concentrate again, because Alec did not have that problem. He had been actively asking questions and participating in the meeting.  
  
Jace went to his room and took a scalding hot shower. As soon as he was under the spray, his hand was on his cock and he gripped himself hard, trying to regain some measure of control.  
  
It didn’t work. The water was scalding hot, yet Jace barely felt it. He showered normally, giving up his plan to wank himself back to sanity, and he dragged himself to bed right after.  
  
This time he got under the covers, not putting any clothes on.  
  
In his vulnerable state, all sorts of dark thoughts came to assault him, especially about the bond. How would it change, now that he and Alec had gone beyond what was allowed between parabatai? Would any aspect of the legends and the curse come true? Would they become true Nephilim and then shatter into pieces, unable to contain the angelic energy? If that were true, then they had really had no choice or say in any of it, because true Nephilim were a sort of last resort weapon against a major threat to the whole Shadow World, which meant the angels controlled whether two parabatai became true Nephilim or not.  
  
Jace made himself small under the covers, lying on his side in the fetal position, trying to wait out the feeling of dread and inevitable doom that had taken over his mind.  
  
It was later during the afternoon, towards the evening, that he heard his door open and Alec got in, putting a locking rune behind himself.  
  
“You alright?” He asked gently, but one look at Jace was enough to tell him that no, Jace wasn’t alright.  
  
Earlier, while sitting in meetings and going on the mission with Izzy, Alec had felt a hard to place tug on his heart, like a worry for something he couldn’t remember. He had figured it was something that reached him through the bond, from Jace, and he had come to see what it was as soon as he’d been dismissed for the day. 

“Actually, I can see you are not.” He said and sighed. “I’ll be right back.”  
  
He went to his room, grabbing a few items from there and made his way back to Jace’s.  
  
He showered in Jace’s bathroom and put on the warm PJs he had brought from his room. Anyone else but him would have just tied a towel around their hips and removed it to get into bed with Jace, but Alec thought that was too presumptuous and he didn’t want Jace to think from then on the solution to everything would be sex.  
  
He wrapped Jace in his arms and placed a small kiss on a bare shoulder.  
  
“Want to tell me what’s wrong? Are you having second thoughts?”  
  
“Second thoughts? No. But what if the legends are true and we turn into giants and then die?”  
  
“That won’t happen. Tell me, how do you feel the bond between us now? Any different than before?” Alec asked, sounding sure of himself.  
  
“Like it settled into place between us and like we’re closer. I can anticipate your moves better and can track you with more accuracy and faster.”  
  
“Can you read my mind? Or hear my thoughts in any way?” 

“No! Is that good or bad?”  
  
“Good. According to the lore, parabatai who consummate their bond can hear each other’s thoughts and get angelic magic, which has a very distinct signature and is very hard to mistake for anything else. I’d say we’re safe.” Alec reasoned.  
  
“Why am I such a mess? Why do I question every good thing that comes my way and expect the worst to happen? What if one day you do decide you’ve had enough of me?”  
  
“That won’t happen, Jace. I’m not my mother, I don’t walk out on people because they might be a hard choice sometimes. And the reason you have problems accepting the good is because your father trained you to expect every good thing to come at a terrible price and he took from you everything you could cling to, every single comfort you had. I’m going to repeat this to you as much as it takes for you to accept you are not to blame for what was done to you.”  
  
Jace sighed. Alec was right. As usual, his parabatai was the voice of reason, and able to soothe all his concerns with a few words and a reassuring hug.  
  
Sleep came not long after, and Alec pulled Jace closer, holding him more securely before also falling asleep with his face in the blond’s hair.  
  
When they woke, it was the wee hours of the morning and still dark outside. Only the sky was a lighter shade of dark blue.  
  
Jace turned in Alec’s arms so he could face him, and in doing so, he brushed against Alec’s hard cock. He was hard too, the good night’s sleep having balanced his emotions again and replenished his energy.  
  
Now he could see the world in more hopeful colours again. Even though they were at the Institute, Alec was in his bed, and he was being given the precious gift of waking up with his soulmate’s arms around him. 

He gave himself over to the moment, and to Alec’s touches. Even still half asleep, Alec’s first intention was touching and caressing Jace.  
  
They each slipped out of bed to go freshen up and take care of pressing business, returning to the safety and warmth of the covers.  
  
By now, the light outside was getting stronger and it was bathing them in a pale blue glow.  
  
“Waking up with you in my arms will never not be magic in itself.” Alec said, reaching to caress Jace’s face with feather-light fingertips.  
  
“I feel so safe here with you. And I had no more nightmares with you so close.” Jace admitted, leaning over and kissing Alec slowly. “Good morning.”  
  
Alec smiled against Jace’s lips and made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded a lot like purring.  
  
“Wanna make it an even better morning?” Alec suggested, surprising even himself. Normally he was a stickler for rules and the Alec from one week ago would have blushed even at the notion of masturbating under the Institute’s roof, but giving his virginity to Jace had felt so right and it had given him so much confidence that maybe, just maybe, he would be allowed to be in control of this part of his life and have things the way he wanted them. For Alec, it had always been Jace. Even in his cheesiest, least likely fantasies, he always had Jace by his side. He had sometimes pictured himself and Jace as older men, retired from Shadowhunting, dressed up warm and walking hand in hand through a forest, two happy dogs following them around. But most of his fantasies had been of Jace saying he wanted him back, and that what they had was perfect, good and complete. That it would always be the two of them, in every way.  
  
“I’m up for whatever you have in mind,” Jace said with a wink, looking down at their erections. “And by the looks of it, so are you.”  
  
Alec laughed, a small, light sound, the perpetual crease between his eyebrow smoothing itself out and making him look a lot younger and carefree. It stole Jace’s breath away to see and he took one of Alec’s hands, lacing their fingers together and holding Alec’s arm to his chest as he kissed each finger.  
  
Alec felt sudden tears prickle his eyes and he made an effort to rein them back, not wanting to make Jace self-conscious. He loved how soft and loving Jace was with him. How he told him what scared him and haunted him. They were both hardened warriors who had seen and done terrifying things, so every moment of tenderness was a gift.  
  
He rolled back, pulling Jace on top of him and grinding up against him, letting him know what his plan was.  
  
Jace got the idea and blushed. It did put him into the more exposed position, but the memory of Alec filling him and moving to the perfect angle and rhythm distracted him from his fleeting concern.  
  
Alec quickly got rid of his PJs and gave his cock a few strokes, watching Jace. He thought of how tight and hot Jace had felt around him and it left him dizzy and dripping with desire. He reached over to the nightstand and took out the brand new tube of lube he had bought while on the way back from a mission. 

They missed breakfast altogether and they were late for lunch. At Izzy and Maryse’s questioning looks, Alec simply shrugged and said, “Jace had nightmares.”  
  
It was enough explanation for Izzy, but Maryse was visibly annoyed by the idea. Jace *always* had nightmares, why on earth did he need babying now, when he was a grown man? And why did it have to be her son… oh right, the parabatai thing. Sometimes she regretted how much freedom she had allowed her older kids. Luckily, the decent part of her pointed out that Jace was like her son too, and he was doing his best. Needing a bit of help now and then was not the end of the world.  
  
Also, looking at the boys, they seemed to be alright now. They were grinning at each other and joking with the other Shadowhunters at the table.  
  
Both Alec and Jace were sore in places that would have made Maryse call the Clave right the fuck then if she had known and the reason they were in that good a disposition was because a. their bodies were swimming in endorphins after how much sex they had just had and b. they were getting the hang of how being together would work, with very mellow days and very heated stolen moments when they could be together as one.  
  
On the outside, nothing had changed. 

Life was normal - they went on missions, killed demons, came back, gave reports. They helped Clary Fairchild find her mother and they won the war against Valentine, who did try to weaken them and divide them with lies of Jace having demon blood. Jace got tortured by Valentine and trained to complete the process of turning him into Valentine’s ultimate weapon in his hate of the Downworld. But every time, Alec was there, pulling him back from the edge. Hand in hand, they overcame all the odds that were stacked against them.  
  
When Alec’s guilt and feelings of having failed everyone got him to walk off the ledge and fall to his death, Jace watched it happen from only a few steps away. With a bloodcurdling scream he reached for Alec, realising even as he did that there was no way he could save him.  
  
Luckily Magnus Bane had been there, rescuing Alec at the very last moment and at great cost to his magic. Thus began a strange friendship between the three of them. Magnus tried to date Alec again, but he soon realised Alec’s heart was no longer his to give. He also realised Alec was an amazing person, who ended up changing his generalised disdain for Shadowhunters into a more nuanced opinion, which was what made him choose to count Alec among his friends. At first, Magnus had thought Jace was an arrogant asshole, like most famous Shadowhunters, but getting to know Jace, he had discovered he was fragile, sensitive, loving and self-sacrificing, a feature he had in common with Alec.  
  
And that was how Magnus decided to adopt the two Shadowhunters, like two kittens brought in from the rain. Being immortal was very lonely ever since he had broken up with Camille, and each century he would find people to mean something to him and connect him to the present moment and the pulse of the times. This time, it would be his two pet Shadowhunters, who, like any pets, tended to get themselves into a lot of trouble if left unsupervised. He loved them though, they were so beautiful and complementing each other in every way.  
  
Magnus had his suspicions about exactly how intimate Alec and Jace were, but they were so beautiful and deadly, he never voiced those suspicions out of the fear of driving them away and losing them. Besides, just because he was immortal did not mean he was entitled to everyone’s secrets.  
  
What Magnus loved the most in his Shadowhunters were the little moments, the ones everyone else overlooked because Jace and Alec were parabatai and they were expected to be close and nice to each other anyway.  
  
Like the times when they drew iratzes on each other after an intense battle. Sometimes Magnus would help, if there was demon venom involved or other things that iratzes didn’t work too well against. Or how Alec called Jace over to the terrace at Magnus’ loft to show him a particularly beautiful sunset, wrapping a gentle arm around Jace’s waist until the golden hair spilled onto Alec’s shoulder. How Jace cooked and always let Alec have the first bite to tell him if it was missing something.  
  
Alec was incredibly shy when it came to people who were flirting with him; Magnus knew that from first hand experience. This very competent leader and highly skilled Shadowhunter was reduced to a babbling mess if someone was coming on to him. Usually people were thrown off by the discrepancy between the “tall dark and handsome” aura and the mousy personality and walked away, leaving him alone. But Magnus never saw Alec suffer over losing potential dates.  
  
Jace, on the other hand, had no problem engaging in flirting - or telling people when fun was over. He seemed perfectly content with the power over others his looks and his fame bestowed on him. But he never led anyone on or gave them false hopes.  
  
The only one who had a problem with Alec and Jace not finding wives and getting married was Maryse, who wanted to see them leading two different Institutes and who also expected grandchildren. 

But the years passed and neither Alec, nor Jace got any closer to making Maryse’s dreams come true. However, Magnus noticed that instead of growing tired and frail like most mortals did after a certain age, Alec and Jace remained resplendent and powerful, like two beings straight out of legends. It only then occurred to him that they were probably immortal, which would have been a confirmation of his suspicions that he’d had all this time.  
  
The more time went by, the more attractive they became, and at some point Jace suggested retiring from shadowhunting. It wasn’t easy, but Jace was a Herondale and he and Alec had helped kill so many enemies of the Clave and so many greater demons, that the ruling authority of the Shadow World had no choice but to decree their release from active duty so they could peacefully live out the rest of their days among mundanes.  
  
They bought a beautiful black house in the middle of a forest and they adopted animals from the local shelter, mostly big dogs mundanes deemed impossible to rehabilitate. Alec got noticed by someone from the fashion brand Versace in Whole Foods and for a while all the tall buildings in squares and famous locations featured ads with Alec in designer underwear. Jace began to compose music and put it online, and after a while, artists from all over the world wanted him to work with them. He became very famous for a solo album of atmospheric trance music, called “Angel Whispers”. It became a staple in every man, woman and child’s album collection. People listened to it to fall asleep, to psyche themselves up to do scary tasks, to come down from panic attacks. But he refused to go on talk shows and get fame out of the interest the world now had in him. All he decided to share were the few lines in the physical album inlay: 

_“There once was a boy who was painfully taught that to love is to destroy. That boy is no more; a love stronger than any darkness in the possible worlds turned him into a man who can play songs on his piano, through his broken and mended fingers, from his broken and now whole heart.”_  
  
Magnus was shaken to the core when he listened to the album himself. It was the most beautiful, heart wrenching collection of songs he had ever heard, and he had heard a lot of the world’s music. It felt so naked and raw, he forgot to even think of a joke to tell Jace to convey how much he liked it.  
  
On the day he went to visit Alec and Jace at their remote place, he found Jace in his little studio, writing and recording, wearing torn jeans and little else, still as beautiful as the first day Magnus had met him. He had a chewed pencil behind his ear and his lower lip was bleeding a bit from Jace biting it in concentration while he worked.  
  
Alec was due to return home any moment and when he let himself in, he immediately knew Magnus was there, from the gorgeous sandalwood and patchouli trail Magnus’ hair left wherever he went.  
  
They invited him to join them on a walk through the forest with their dogs, two Kangals and two Cane Corsos. Alec called them “the babies” and treated them as such, even though the dogs could each eat a man Magnus’ size and still have room for a snack.  
  
Alec changed into a warmer jacket, hanging his dressy black one in the hallway and switching from Louboutin boots to Doc Martens for walking through the forest.  
  
Jace put on a thick, black turtleneck pullover, a black woolen coat with a scarf, and a pair of black ranger boots.  
  
When they got towards the end of the forest, near the close by highway, they were surrounded by demons which made their way towards them from among the trees.  
  
Alec and Jace told their dogs to get between them, and Magnus watched the scared animals obey their masters flawlessly.  
  
Alec reached for Jace’s hand. As soon as their hands touched, their eyes and runes lit up gold, leaving no doubt in Magnus’ mind on the nature and source of that power. The two parabatai conjured shapes of light which solidified into weapons in their hands, and they started cleaving away at the demons.  
  
Magnus did not feel afraid at all, and he did not need to use his magic to help. He was more scared of the big dogs sniffing out the fact that he was strictly a cat person.  
  
Immortality was no longer a lonely place.   
  
(the end)  



End file.
